The winding narrow lanes with the Palmyra fences almost reaching the tar, herds of cyclists (they ride five or six abreast and this I am told is a form of enjoyment)…….are still there. A recent visit to Jaffna after the first sprinklings of rain from the intermonsoonal showers showed us just how different and hauntingly beautiful the landscape could be. The ice cream is still spectacularly decadent and the Palmyra toddy sublime. A well cooked Jaffna crab curry far surpasses the “Singapore style crab curry” that Colombo thrives on today.

The journey is not as tedious as I remember it. In these days of air conditioned, well sprung vehicles a metamorphosis from the days of the humble Morris traveler. The roads too are much better and improvements are being done as we speak. Ours was a first time experience for 3 children who had not been able to visit due to a war that had prevailed through their short lifetimes. The traditional pilgrimage to Nagadipa, one of the 3 places that the Lord Buddha had visited and one of the reasons why this land is sometimes referred to as the thrice blessed land, was mandatory.

The designers of the boats that are used to transport passengers to Nagadipa are I am sure, a form of revenge extracted from the Sinhala Buddhist pilgrims by boat designers who although long dead, would be laughing themselves hoarse in another world. It defeats logic as to why life jackets are worn in a mode of transport that would never allow the passenger to ever reach the open water should the conveyance decide to sink. Passengers packed in at 80 to a boat that should hold 30, entrance through two tiny doors and a clearance that doesn’t allow even a 5’11’ medium sized man to stand up straight, make the enforcement of the life belt rule by the armed forces, ludicrous to say the least.

On the subject of the armed forces….there presence is VERY marked from the time one enters the Peninsula or even just before. Every junction has a presence and it was rather amusing to see a Lance Corporal with a whistle controlling the crowd, very effectively may I say, at the sacred baths in Keerimale. One wonders what reaction the presence of this worthy at Kataragama (multi religious shrine)or even the sacred Dalada Maligawa (Buddhist Shrine), carrying out this same function would evoke!

It costs Rs100/- ($1/-)for a vehicle to enter the beautiful Casuarina beach. When one get’s there one is pleasantly surprised, as to how clean it is and it is only the stray cattle and aggressive crows who try to disturb a picnic one may choose to have. The water is pristine and the beach as incredibly wonderful as ever.

The point I am trying to achieve in my convoluted and hopefully not too laborious manner is that the “control” enforced on the hordes of domestic tourists who visit the Peninsula by the armed forces is NOT ALL BAD. At the turn off to Kayts and Nagadipa each vehicle is politely told by a Policeman that they are forbidden from throwing their waste and polythene out of the window and are required to put it in designated bins. The bins are freely available and seem to be emptied regularly. As a result the horrible sight of scraps of polythene hanging from barbed wire fences like dead bats’ does not assail one and serene landscape is pristine. Literarily hundreds of thousands of loud, ill mannered, impatient tourists from the South behave with a degree of servility and orderliness that should be transported to their home provinces.

Of course one is at the “mercy” of these uniformed worthies and since they are only human a degree of abuse may be expected. Sometimes on is virtually “ordered” to visit monuments and shrines to war heroes that one doesn’t really want to or has been to before. Other times needleless searches that involve 10 year old children having to get out of vehicles and carry their bags for a cursory search at checkpoints happen but all in all the forces presence and their conduct is “par for the course” , as far as this Sinhala visitor goes.

What do the “native” people feel? I was fortunate enough to meet a few intellectuals’ ( University, professors, school teachers and educated people working for NGO’s like CARE) who felt that life in Jaffna itself was only slightly better but that life in the Wanni had improved dramatically BUT there was one factor that needed addressing very urgently.

The IDPs’ living in camps and more specifically the school going age children of those IDPs’! Apparently they have all lost at least one and on most cases up to 3 close family members, in the last few days of the bloody war of “liberation”. These children are apparently traumatized to a degree that we denizens of the South would never understand. This combined with still having to live in tents and temporary accommodation is, I am told by educationalists’ who seem equally traumatized, an area that is not being addressed adequately.

Those who face reality in Sri Lanka and let me tell you such people are few and far between in this the land of the lotus eater, know for a fact that psychiatric care is not sufficient and is not given sufficient emphasis. There is a DESPERATE need for adequately qualified people to work with these children for they are the future of Jaffna and her peoples. If this generation grows up with the fear and hatred that they harbor in their hearts now, the consequences will be worse than what we have witnessed over the last few decades and will nullify the golden opportunity that is prevalent for a lasting peace.

The only peace we can hope to sustain is one based on mutual trust. Trust based on a deep and lasting knowledge of our mutual cultures and their inherent attributes. This is something my Tamil friend who took me and my family to Jaffna and hosted us, agreed on during our many conversations.

This is what inspired me to make this humble attempt to write this piece. This is what I hope the rulers of this Country, the intellectuals and the Majority will realize before it is too late and we are plunged back into the abyss that we are taking the first “baby steps” to get out of.